President of Bolivia, Luis Arce, responds to Evo Morales for accusation of ‘self-coup d’état’: ‘Make no mistake’

The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, told former president Evo Morales “make no mistake” about the military uprising that the leader of the ruling party described as a “self-coup” in the last hours.

“Evo Morales, do not be mistaken once again! Clearly what happened on June 26 was a failed military coup in Bolivia,” the Bolivian president wrote on his social networks.

“Do not side with fascism that denies what happened! Those responsible who sought to seize power by force of arms are being prosecuted and will be judged, as was the case with the coup plotters in 2019,” the president added.

Arce’s publication is in response to the statements made by former President Morales on the morning of this Sunday, June 30, when he declared “Lucho Arce deceived the Bolivian people and the entire world with this coup or self-coup,” during his Sunday program on Radio Kawsachún Coca.

The leader of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) said he has doubts about the military action that the government called an “attempted coup d’état,” and that the call President Arce made to him on Wednesday during the military uprising “was a fake show of solidarity.”

“There are several details here. Initially, until Wednesday night, even on Thursday morning, I thought it was a coup, but now I’m confused, it seems like a self-coup,” said the coca grower leader.

During the program, The former president questioned the way in which the uprising was carried out and the reaction of the Arce GovernmentEven days ago, Morales assured that he “was the target” of Zuñiga’s military operation.

He also said that he suspects that the military mobilization “was planned” by the president, to gain prestige and then “victimize himself with crocodile tears.”

President Arce said in an interview with EFE that he was afraid for himself, for his cabinet and for the citizens who came to Plaza Murillo to try to defend the headquarters of the Executive during the “attempted coup d’état” last Wednesday.

“We know that the military is starting to pull the trigger,” he said.

The dismissed former commander Zuñiga arrived on June 26 with tanks and armed men at the headquarters of the Bolivian Executive in the city of La Paz, there he said that he wanted to “change the Government Cabinet” and “reestablish” democracy, after a few hours of tension retreated to be captured later.

Two ministers criticize Morales

The Ministers of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, and the Interior Minister Eduardo Del Castillo separately criticized the statements of former President Morales.

“Today Evo is trying to say that President Arce lied to the country and the international community (…). We cannot be so irresponsible with history and with the life of the Bolivian people just because of ego and ambitions for power,” Prada said in a program on the state channel Bolivia Tv.

“Evo Morales has become a compulsive mythomaniac and believes that the country revolves around him, he does not even have the dignity to worry about what could really have happened within the national territory,” Del Castillo said this Sunday at a conference of press.

EFE